jmcgloth Loc: Ocean Park, WA

Dam fine photo.

CHOLLY Loc: THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE!

^^^TWO people replying in this thread have said they have lost data on memory cards by removing them or inserting them with the power on. Additionally, several have mentioned the fact that charged sensors attract dust, necessitating cleaning.

One other CRITICAL point to consider; there is NOTHING that can be hurt by turning the switch off to remove a lens... on the other hand, the possibility DOES exist that damage can be done by doing so with the electronics powered up.

Turn your camera off. It's easy and it doesn't hurt.

rob s Loc: La Mesa, CA

Agreed absolutely. If you've read my first post on this subject you'll know I already said we should turn off the power.
My point was that in the absence of any reported damage to a camera no one should stress about this if they forget.
Of course you can get card problems by yanking them when the power is on. Duh!

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Jr, welcome to the Hog!
It's never a bad idea to turn off your camera to change anything especially its fan belt!!:lol:
But, for a thing to attract anything, one has to have a + charge and the other a - charge. Now assuming the dirt in the air is inert, why will it have a charge at all? Your sensor is an electronic devise, not a vacuum cleaner(which by the way does have a fan belt)!
Now, if you are shooting in a dusty iron ore mine, maybe! :lol: :lol: :lol:
Andwith luck, all the electrical engineers, geologist and house cleaners will chime in about the properties of turned on dirt!
SS

rob s Loc: La Mesa, CA

On this point Canon and other makers already provide for sensor cleaning It is only reasonable to assume that they have also gone to some lengths to ensure that the sensors do not build up a charge on their surface since this would immediately attract any particles already in the camera as a result of lens swapping.
All this FUD, (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt), is annoying. All of the 'Could happen', 'Might happen' and 'Happens to refrigerator door handles' worriers are still completely ignoring the fact that so far no one has been able to show any equipment damaged this way. In spite all the evidence to the contrary you all seem to think that the Canon engineers don't know how to design round your anxieties.
Quit all the obsessing and do the obvious.
Turn your equipment off as recommended and don't worry if you forget.
That's it. There's nothing else needs adding.

Video Vinny Loc: Pahrump

Doesn't sound like the best advice. But will put it in the 'con' column and tally at the end. I have found that I can learn from everyone so I appreciate input from all. Thank you

Video Vinny Loc: Pahrump

Sharp Shooter is right on and he usually is.

There are just a couple of 'malcontents' in this forum.

Only one of the many that responded to my Qs was negative, he actually said ...don't turn camera off, I want you to find out what those 'strange things are ......

Stay with it and don't get upset. Keep smiling Vinny

:lol: :lol:

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Vinny, thank you.
You've just recharged MY smile batteries!! :lol: :lol:
SS. 🚀

PS, turn off the camera!

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

You don't need both a plus and a minus charged particle. What counts is just a potential difference. One charged particle... and everything else is attracted to it.

But in reality everything is a charged particle. Being inert has nothing to do with it, but dirt in the air is not inert and is charged.

The camera's sensor is a real source of electro static charge. Anything floating in the air is attracted to it, and significantly more so when the camera is turned on, but still true to some degree when it is turned off too!

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Can you point us to something that supports that??
SS

Slick Willie Loc: The U. S.

You too, Vinny! I never get upset and my smile is always there.

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

From all I've read - - CMOS REALLY doesn't like electrostatic charges.
They tend to FRY the CMOS circuitry - -
So you can probably be DANG sure camera manufacturers go to GREAT lengths to prevent such from accumulating on the sensors.
I am NOT sure how much charge differential exists in the proximity of a sensor - but unlikely the 6-volt battery creates an adequate pull to attract anything.
I'd more believe that a couple of thousand volts on a dust mote might cause it to drift toward the nice flat sensor.
Also unlikely any 'magnetic fields' are around the sensor - and even if they were - that would only be a problem for ferromagnetic dust particles.
And sure - - there can be high voltages running around inside a camera - the flash unit comes to mind - however the CMOS image sensors tend to be low voltage devices - typically on the order of 3.5 to 5 volts.

CHOLLY Loc: THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE!

^^^Spoken like someone with knowledge of both Chemistry AND Physics. :thumbup:

CHOLLY Loc: THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE!

Ever use an Ionic filter?

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Here are two places to start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_discharge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_electricity

Googling "static electricity" or "electrostatic discharge" will provide a vast amount of fascinating information too.

As for dirt in the air, let me relate a bit of an hilarous tale. I saw this in the middle 1980's on an instructional film about electrostatic discharge. The guy who made it invented the pink anti-static plastic that has been widely used every since. This is more or less the story of how he came to invent it.

He had a plastics manufacturing plant where they collected some kind of samples in plastic containers. It was a large operation and they actually had a full time dishwasher who did nothing but wash these containers as they became dirty. Well, a few months after hiring a young man to do this job it became apparent that something had changed. The previous washer was busy all day, and this guy was sitting idle most of the day. So they investigated why it was that these plastic sample containers were all of a sudden not getting dirty.

What they found was that the dishwasher was not doing his job! He was supposed to wash, then rinse, and then dry. The lazy rascal was skipping the rinse cycle because he said it wasn't needed. They fired him. (And found a job more suited to his talent.)

By not rinsing the soap off the plastic, he was essentially leaving a film of water (the soap is a very effective dispersant, much like Photo Flow if you did darkroom work). So this film of moisture on the plastic served as a discharge path for static electricity, at least until it finally evaporated. The only reason the containers ever collected dust was because of a build up of static charge that attracted the dust particles in the air (much like the sensor in a digital camera).

So this fellow got the bright idea one night after work, and a couple of guys gave it a try. Their main business was making plastics. So they ran off a batch that included a bit of water dispersant. They figured it would take a lot of experimenting to get it right, but it turned out to be very uncritical. The first batch worked! But before they knew that they decided to color code each batch so they'd be able to track what worked or didn't. While trying to think of a way to do it, the guy's wife stopped by to pick him up. She saw the problem and gave them a tube of lipstick. That was dropped into the batch of plastic, and is the reason it turned out to be P**** Pink, as he described it repeatedly.